Digimon Generations
by Xavier Rall
Summary: When the Displacement happens, the town of Blood River disappears. Two years later, a gateway appears and the world learns the truth: Blood River was transported to the Digital World, where 500 years have passed and Digimon are a part of daily life, a lot has happened in that time. What happened in that time? What is going to happen next?
1. New is New, but Strange is Perspective

**A/N: I`ve been a fan of Digimon ever since I decided I would give Digimon Tamers a go last year after learning supposedly how good it was. Satisfied by what I saw, I`ve since devoured the other two first seasons, but not much else in the franchise has been as entertaining. I`ve been wanting to do** ** _something_** **of a fanfiction for the Digimon franchise for a while now, and so, out of the ideas I`ve thought about and laid out, I`ve decided to give this one the first shot to see what happens.**

 _"I subscribe to the anthropic principle: there are an infinite number of infinite universes, each with slightly different physical laws. Only some of them have the right parameters, such as gravity the right strength to allow stars to be born and live long. Where the charge on the electron is right to allow complex molecules to form, etc. Ours is one that allows intelligent life to form, so that the universe may wonder at itself. We *are* the universe, in wonder of itself."_

 _― William Donelson_

 _"If an AI possessed any one of these skills—social abilities, technological development, economic ability—at a superhuman level, it is quite likely that it would quickly come to dominate our world in one way or another. And as we've seen, if it ever developed these abilities to the human level, then it would likely soon develop them to a superhuman level. So we can assume that if even one of these skills gets programmed into a computer, then our world will come to be dominated by AIs or AI-empowered humans."  
― Stuart Armstrong, Smarter Than Us: The Rise of Machine Intelligence_

Data Set A-1: New is New, but Strange is Perspective

[At almost precisely midnight of March 14, 2015, the world paid witness to a great flash of light in upper New York state. It lasted for but a moment, but its image was burned onto both the retinas and memories of all who saw it. The satellites orbiting above recorded it, and the few smartphones on the scene taped it live, before the owners of these phones uploaded the videos onto the Internet for all of the world to see. Soon, everyone would learn of the mysterious demise of the small town of Blood River, as every man-made object within a three mile radius of the town center was lifted out of existence, including the roads, and even some of the natural features vanished as well, such as the town`s namesake river. No one knew how or why the Displacement happened, which mostly left nothing but a crater in its place. Two years would pass before they finally found out. But by then, everything had been irrevocably changed.]

 **Blood River, Day 1**

 **Maria POV**

When daylight floods though your bedroom window right when the grandfather clock in the living room downstairs literally strikes twelve, you just KNOW that something went ape-shit crazy.

For Maria Fulbridge, forced to suddenly turn away from her computer screen where she`d been checking her Facebook page so as to shield her eyes, the only thought that could go through her mind at that moment was _Holy shit! Who turned the Sun back on?_

After blinking her green eyes a bit to adjust to the light that now fell gently on her short blond hair, pale skin and lithe, athletic figure, she crawled off her bed to open the window and get a good look outside. Casting her gaze about, all of the familiar things in town that she could see were still there. Living near the town`s very outskirts on a hill may have been a pain in regards to putting too much distance between her and her friends for her liking, but Maria always thought the view was compensation enough, as she could pick out almost everything in town from where she lived.

All three of the church steeples in town were still towering over everything else. She could see Route 71 passing straight through town, noticeably cleaving it in half, with most of the residential areas on her side of town, as well as Blood River Public School, servicing all of the grades from Kindergarten through senior year of high school. She could pick out the imposing stone courthouse (she always thought that whoever built it that way was compensating for something), the similarly intimidating public library, the Retro Neon Diner (actual name) and the YMCA center. She could also note the latest addition to the town, the nearby Prometheus Technologies, which had set up shop nearby to bring new jobs and business to the town when the factories and mines were on the verge of shutting down in the face of increasing federal and state regulations. Finally, she could recognize the gently flowing stream from which the town had taken its name, as it meandered along the eastern edge of town, coming down from the north and running underneath Route 71 and the Tecumseh Bridge before continuing southeast.

She could see all of this, but her eyes were currently fixed on the mountains that were surrounding the town.

Because last she checked, one, the town only had mountains on its northern and western peripheries, two, they weren`t overgrown with what looked like a weird mixture of a tropical jungle and a redwood forest with a snowcapped peak, and three, she they weren`t the size of the freaking _Rockies_.

She blinked, rubbed her eyes more aggressively, and looked again.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Still there.

Overcome with shock and awe, she backed away from the window. She turned back and scrambled onto her bed to check her computer. All she found on the screen was static. Panic rising in her chest, she went to her nightstand where her smartphone sat and turned it on, and immediately went to get on the Internet. No access.

Her breath quickened, as she checked her phone`s cell reception. Five bars. She calmed herself down a bit and decided to try calling her best friend Danielle, who lived nearby the school. The phone rang. And rang. And-

*Click* "Hiii," a voice said groggily from the other end.

"Oh thank God!" Maria breathed out. "You have no clue how freaked out I am!"

"Why, what`s going on? It`s midnight, and, wait, why`s the Sun up already? Whaaa- HOLY SHIT!"

"You can see those mountains too? Thank God I thought I was going crazy!"

"What`s going on?" Danielle asked, with audible fear in her voice. "You have any idea?"

"Maybe, although it sounds really nuts," Maria replied, forcing herself to calm down further for the sake of her friend. "The power is still on thanks to the power plant and we still get reception from the cell tower nearby, but the Internet is out, so I don`t think we can contact anybody outside of town. So, for now, I think our town just got transported to someplace else, _Ring of Fire_ -style."

"You mean we`re in another world?" Danielle inquired.

After a moment of thought, Maria replied, "Most likely."

Right then, she heard knocking on her door. "Hold a minute, Dani. Yeah?" she called out.

The door opened and a man stepped in, decked out in a deputy officer`s uniform, giving her a look of worry and care in his own green orbs. "Hey, Maria, you alright?" It was her dad.

"Yeah, I`m fine, Dad. Just a little surprised that we`ve got someplace new to go hiking for a family trip is all, heh-heh," she said nervously.

"Okay. I need to head out to the sheriff`s station to find out what`s going on and so that I can help in keeping things in town from getting out of hand."

"What about Mom?" Maria asked.

"Your mother called me as soon as it happened. She`s gonna stay at the hospital to help anyone who might suddenly come in. Meanwhile, we both need you to stay and watch your little brother."

"What about my friends? I can`t just leave them alone!"

"And you don`t have to," he said, putting his hands on her shoulders. "If you want to help them, call or text as many of them as you can, help them to calm down if they need to and try to get them to help in any way they can."

"Is that it?" she said, shrugging his hands off her shoulders. "Babysitting my brother and making calls? Is that all I`m good for?"

"Absolutely not," her father replied. "I know better than anyone else aside from your mother just how strong you are. It`s just things have become very confusing right now and I honestly don`t know what else we`re supposed to do. Listen," he bent over to look her levelly in the eye. "This is what I need you to do _now_. When we know more about what`s going on, I`ll let you know what else you can do. Until then, just sit tight, try to help people keep their heads on straight, and be ready for anything. Okay?"

Maria understood what her father was saying. She could also sense his own frustration with all that was happening, and his genuine fear for her safety. She nodded. "Okay, Daddy." She stepped forward and hugged him tight, and he embraced her in return. "I love you."

"I love you too," he said, kissing her on the head. Letting go, he turned and walked out.

Maria stood there for a moment, looking at where her father had walked out from.

"Wow, your Dad really trusts you, huh?"

Suddenly, she realized that she ended her phone call with Danielle, meaning she`d heard the whole thing.

"D-don`t you go spreading any rumors or I`ll beat you six ways through Sunday!"

"Ha-hah! Thanks for calling, Maria. I needed that. And I`ll help out in any way, you just take care of yourself, okay?"

"Yeah. You too. Bye."

"Bye." Danielle hung up.

With her father`s confidence and Danielle`s reassurance, Maria felt more sure of herself, although still nervous about her situation. Walking back to the window, she watched as her father just about jumped into his cruiser and drove off to town. Looking out at the mountains, she now began to wonder what was really out there, and now began to feel excitement at the possibilities. She turned her gaze skyward as she reflected on that.

 _I don`t know what`s going on, but I can`t wait to find out!_

Then she found out something.

"Why does the sky have grid lines?" she said to herself.

Just then, she heard branches rustling. She turned to the one tree in the house`s front yard, and saw the weirdest thing she`d ever laid eyes on.

It was a bird. A _pink_ bird with blue-tipped tail feathers, a pink-and-blue-striped curled feather perched on its head, a bright red beak, three red claws on its arm-like wings, and the biggest pair of blue eyes she`d ever seen. It was easily as big as her little brother Zack.

And it was looking back.

After a moment of silent awkwardness, Maria gave voice to the one thought in her head:

"Are you a Pokémon?"

It tilted its head in obvious confusion.

"What`s a Pokémon? And are you a human?"

 **Irena POV**

The moment the gateway appeared, her mind immediately flashed back to that horrible moment two years ago, when the white light that caused the Displacement took Ben away, her boyfriend of three years.

They had been on a camping trip with friends, and the girls and guys had to sleep in different tents. Feeling restless, she had gotten out of her tent to get some air, despite the slight chill. She saw that he had been similarly restless, and had just pulled out his flute to play. He had noticed her coming out, and turned to her to smile at her. Her heart would always melt when he smiled just as he did right then. She walked toward him, ready to help comfort him on a cold night.

However, before she got halfway, a wall of white light blinded her for but a moment, and when she could focus once more, Ben had vanished. And so had the guys` tent.

She would only fall asleep the next night, when hours of searching and screaming herself hoarse in an effort to find Ben yielded nothing for her except for dry, red eyes.

After that, she became as like an emotionless automaton, as she pushed her knowledge of mathematics and science far beyond what she had previously been capable of. Her effort and drive would land her a place in the Displacement Investigation Project, or DIP, as part of efforts to precisely diagnose the cause of the Displacement. By the time the second-anniversary approached, scientists, her included, could only come to two key conclusions: First, the town had not been destroyed, as there was no evidence in the land, water, or even air in the surrounding fifty-mile radius to suggest such a conclusion. Second, interdimensional physics were involved, as this was due to the detection of strange residue energies detected in the area that appeared to be in violation of every scientific law known to man.

That time was the most frustrating and depressing in her life. She and the other scientists on the project had to contend with research that almost seemed to be actively opposing their efforts to make sense of it, nut-job extremists of every stripe that endangering their well-being, greedy corporations seeking to financially exploit them, bastard reporters out for a sleazy scoop, and grand-standing politicians threatening to slash the funds. And while the military had been helpful in providing them support and protection all the while, she couldn`t help but feel there were a few in their ranks that were trying to find something the project was working on to turn into a weapon of mass destruction.

Staying up that night, she was ready to commemorate the second anniversary of the Displacement with tears, something which she had only permitted twice before: the night of the Displacement, and its first anniversary.

When the gateway appeared, it did so at the very center of where the Displacement had occurred, a bit of distance away from where DIP had set up their official headquarters and research center. She and the others had to rush on over with the help of the SUVs they`d brought, while escorted by the jeeps and one tank the military had loaned for protection, just in case of a scenario like this one.

Approaching the gateway, there were several observations that were instantly clear: It was easily wide enough to bridge a three-lane highway, tall enough for a truck to pass through without any problems, was colored a pulsing aqua blue with rippling lines of green coding swarming all about its face, and it was stable.

As Irena watched, she noticed some of the coding begin to coalesce around the base, forming ten distinct shapes. Shapes that began to move forward and detach themselves from the gateway. The scientists watched in awe as the military trained their weapons upon them.

Five of them were human. The other five… weren`t. The ten of them had clearly organized themselves in pairs, one human and one monster (it felt more appropriate for some reason and alien felt too cliché) each.

In the middle was a tall, full-bearded, blond, green-eyed man who walked with a powerful, commanding stride, dressed in flowing robes of red and orange, with something that looked akin to a stunted, orange, cartoonish raptor walked beside him.

To his right was a *naturally?* blue-haired, sapphire-eyed woman in a travel-ready amethyst dress who exuded grace and elegance in her steps, and a strange, white-furred creature with purple patterning laid across her shoulders.

To the man`s left was a mere child, no more than a boy. Wide-eyed curiosity and awe were clear to be seen in his *pink?* eyes, and he was decked out in greens and purples from his goggles to his sandals like some impish prankster, and at his side was what looked like a stuffed bear with the head of a jack-o-lantern and a green, ragged cape.

To the man`s far left was a dark-skinned, gold-eyed girl, no more than a teenager, with spiky hair that seemingly defied gravity and held bright stripes of yellow in its brown locks. She was dressed simply, in a comfortable-looking set of tan clothing, with the only accessory being a gold-chain necklace. Hovering by her side was what looked like a giant, armored, honeybee.

The pair that really caught Irena`s attention, however, was the pair on the man`s far right.

The monster of the pair had the appearance of a black-furred, gray-patched, bipedal fox, with maroon markings under its eyes and its arms had blood red *gloves?* with golden gothic crosses sewed on.

The young man it walked beside was as nothing short of the embodiment of what a bad boy looked like. He wore black from head to toe, from his fedora to his long coat and shirt, and from his fingerless gloves to his jeans and boots. He also appeared to be the only one with visible weapons, in the form of a pair of long and thin, katana-like swords strapped to his hip. The only color in his outfit came from steely gray embellishments on his coat, belt, jeans and boots. But the eyes he had were a burnished orange.

And they were fixed dead square on her.

Then the man spoke, drawing them to the speaker.

"Greetings, one and all! We the people of Blood River have finally returned to the Real World! By the way, you wouldn`t happen to know today`s date, would you? We may have lost count in the last five hundred years or so…"

Just like she would probably have done in his place, the young man in black, in perfect unison with the fox, face-palmed.

 **A/N: Please leave honest reviews!**


	2. Readying for a New Reality

**A/N: FINALLY! This one was a PAIN to write.**

 **Personally disappointed by the lack of reception in regards to the first chapter, but entirely understandable.**

Data Set A-2: Readying for a New Reality

 **Blood River, Day 2**

 **Joshua POV**

"I have no idea what to do! My husband was away on a business trip when all this happened! My kids are scared out of their minds…"

Loud.

"You think we're in some kind of virtual reality? I mean, the sky has grid lines, patches of stuff just get fuzzy randomly like on a computer or TV, and also…"

Suspicious.

"Have you seen those mountains and forests? Who knows what's roaming out there? There could be aliens for all we know!"

Ready to blow up at a moment`s notice.

"DOES ANYBODY GOT ANY F***ING IDEA WHERE WE ARE?!"

There were a number of different phrases that Deputy Joshua Fulbridge could think up to describe the throng of people that had packed the town hall to the gills. And he couldn't blame them.

Ever since the whole town had been woken up in the middle of the night to a full day in a strange environment, it had been nothing but chaos. They spent hours simply making sure that as many of the landmarks they were familiar with were still there. However, a lot more time had been taken up simply recording who was living in town and who among its residents was not accounted for. At the same time, they had needed to emphasize to families to stay in their homes until they had a handle on the situation. There were also a few people who came into town driving down the highway, who were just as confused as the rest of them about the whole situation.

He also had no idea how people would react to the new "friends" that Maria and a few of the other children and teenagers had come across.

 **BANG! BANG! BANG!**

"ORDER! WILL EVERYONE PLEASE CALM DOWN!" yelled Mayor Charles Macron, as he banged the gavel in order to gain the attention of the raucous crowd.

The crowded town hall immediately became more subdued, as those who could sat down quietly in their seats and those without seats simply stood to the side or in the back.

He let out a sigh, feeling very relieved that no one in the sheriff`s department needed to use violence to contain the growing madness. He was also very thankful that the man at the podium facing the crowd, Charles Macron, was Blood River`s mayor.

The African-American was a large man with a powerful voice and a commanding presence, and that`s without taking his stint as a Marine who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan into account. After he had served his country, he returned home to Blood River and took up a job in managing the local mines. He quickly rose up to soon run the whole operation himself, and many believe that, despite the increasing pressures the mines faced, it was largely thanks to his work that they managed to stay open and keep the jobs that came with them. As the town's troubles increased, he ran for mayor two years prior, promising to keep the town`s important industries running and attract new business to continue doing so.

 _And Prometheus Technologies was the big one he invited in,_ Josh recalled. The high-tech company had become a major asset in the town`s economy after they had set up shop as part of a deal with Macron. Moreover, in his discussions with the townspeople as he was doing his duty, a vast majority either suspected or outright blamed Prometheus Technologies for landing them in this predicament.

Off to the side of the podium was a pair of tables, with several different people seated at them. In front of them were notebooks, pads, and documents. He recognized all of them.

Finley Sherman, Blood River bank manager.

Wayne Bertram, union negotiator of the local workers' union.

Yolanda Briest, general manager of the town's power plant.

Gabriella Capote, the principal of Alexander Hamilton High.

Adam Thrush, Blood River's most prosperous farmer.

Henrietta Glamor, town council head of Water and Sewage Department.

His boss, Sheriff Raymond Cartwright.

And Prometheus Technologies' branch director: Marcus Pulaski.

With the crowd having finally quieted down enough, the Mayor spoke up again.

"Thank you. Here`s the situation as it stands: At exactly midnight of March 14, the town of Blood River and its environs in a three mile radius have been transported to this place, an entirely new environment. Everything familiar has been left behind. We have no idea how to return to Earth. We need to make harsh decisions in the future, immediate, short- and long-term, in regards to water, food, natural gas and electricity. Guns and ammunition, tools and machinery, as well as gasoline are all in limited and even short supply."

The grumbling and muttering was very audible. Nevertheless, Macron simply continued. "You all know what this means. There will be rations on just about everything not nailed down and either non-perishable or consumable, and prioritize where anything outside of basic necessities get distributed in order to make them do as much work as possible with whatever we have. But we can address those details a little later. Right now, Mr. Pulaski from Prometheus has a few words for words for everyone."

Everyone went dead quiet as they fixated their attention on Pulaski as he got and walked to the podium as Macron stood aside. He had the appearance of a thirty-something-looking, slightly short, thin man with frameless glasses, gray business suit and pants accompanied by a blue tie. While a number of people in the room with blame and even open hatred in their eyes, none could see any sort of malice or deviousness in his eyes.

"I think that it is safe to say that everyone here thinks that my company, Prometheus Technologies, is responsible for this… Displacement. Well, to the best of my knowledge, we are indeed responsible."

"YOU SON OF A BITCH!" A man suddenly leaped out of his seat and lunged in the direction of the podium as several other men also got up and grabbed him, trying to keep him from assaulting Pulaski. "Don`t stop me! This bastard just probably ruined all our lives and he needs to be taught a lesson!"

"Calm the f*** down, man," one of the people holding him said.

"Riley," Mayor Macron spoke, gaining the struggling man`s attention. "Never lose your cool in a time of crisis. Let Mr. Pulaski finish first. We'll decide what happens to him AFTER we settle more important things. Clear?"

The now-identified Riley calmed down, and after being let go, returned to his seat, next to where his mournful wife also sat.

Mr. Pulaski resumed. "Now, the global company of Prometheus Technologies has been working on something for the last three years called Project Schrodinger. It`s where we have been working on creating quantum computing systems. If realized, it would increase the speed, processing power, and storage capacity of computers by untold factors and change the face of modern technology forever. Fourteen months ago, our people attempted an extremely primitive prototype for such a machine. Although the computer worked about as much as we expected it to – which was not very well at all – it yielded an unexpected fruit for our labors."

 _So that`s what this all is,_ Josh deduced.

"During the process, a single particle made itself manifest to our research, and it was unlike anything anyone had ever seen. It moved about almost with a will of its own and in direct violation of every law of nature we could conceive of. The top executives decided to focus everything in the project on the study of this particle, to see if something useful could be made of it. Three months ago, my branch made a breakthrough in the research and successfully deduced its origins: a parallel dimension."

 _A lab experiment gone wrong. How cliché can you get?_

"With the congratulations and backing of the company, we designed an experiment to see if the energy of the dimension could be utilized. It would have gone on like a child flicking a light switch to see if it worked. We would jolt it with enough energy to work for a single instant – an event that was projected to, at the very worst, cause a blackout. Something which we were very prepared to deal with. But, at the very moment the machine was switched on, the world went white. When we came to, the machine had been utterly destroyed, and the data our computer systems were supposed to collect from the experiment, had become fried from the sheer influx of data.

"My people tell me that the data they had beforehand says that they have next to no information as to how this could have possibly occurred in the exact manner it did. But," he stopped.

He then took off his glasses and wiped them with a cloth he pulled from his pocket before putting them back on. He continued. "But, they also say that it is all far too much of a coincidence for our experiment to not, at the very least, be involved in this event, if not be the prime instigator. No matter if this was intentional or not, we at Prometheus Technologies are truly sorry for causing all of this, a-and, d-d-destroying your peaceful lives." He stammered near the end, took his glasses off, and wiped his eyes, as he left the podium to return to his seat.

The room was quiet once more as this new information settled in their minds. Mayor Macron then returned to the podium.

"Thank you, Mr. Pulaski. Now, everyone, he did explain all of this to me yesterday during all of the commotion, but I had him wait until now for him or any of his people to reveal this so that false rumors and gossip didn`t spread and cause more chaos than we could deal with. And with that out of the way, we also would like to now get to revealing exactly _where_ we are. And we have some people who can explain it better than I can, so I`ll invite them in."

Josh`s breath caught. He remembered how he had initially reacted to learning about this – pulling out his gun out of fear for his children and pure panic and nearly killing somebody. Although his was the most extreme reaction, all of the others who were privy had initially been quite frightened or intensely confused before warming up. He could only hope the crowd didn`t stampede.

Macron walked to the door to the other side of the hall from the table of town notables. Opening it, he beckoned people on the other side to come out. Seven children walked out. His two kids Maria and Adrian, Maria`s friends Danielle Ivy and Sylvia Asher, a middle-school boy named Conner Walker, the mayor`s son Timothy, and an out-of-town high school teen named Ben Raybell.

The ones who really drew everyone`s attention and brought excited and even frightened murmurs were their companions.

They were, if he remembered correctly, Biyomon, Patamon, Floramon, Labramon, Wormmon, Kiwimon, and Keramon (He had no idea why all their names ended in 'mon,' or why they didn't have names of their own).

"EVERYONE! PLEASE!" Macron boomed again, gaining their attention once more. "I know this is especially freaky, but these are the only things that have a real idea of where we are and how we might get through all of this in one piece! So please, just like with Pulaski, let them have their say." He then stood back, and gestured toward the podium.

Josh's daughter, Maria, walked up to it, her new friend Biyomon staying next to her, nervously watching the crowd. Maria then picked up Biyomon, much to *her?* evident surprise, and placed her atop the podium for all to see.

"Hello, uh, everyone," the bird said, surprising everyone. "I am Biyomon. I and the others you see are all Digimon, and this place where you've all come to is the Digital World."

 **Site BR, Real World, March 15, 2017**

 **Sebastian POV**

 _Strange,_ Sebastian thought, as he examined a twig he had snapped. He then held it up next to another twig he had snapped before, and then another, and the next several dozen down the line.

In the Digital World, if one took the time to break enough twigs and look at them, one would find there were a limited number of shapes a twig breakage could make. Some would be clean, while others would be sharp and jagged, and it was possible, with enough practice, to produce the exact kinds of breakage one would like in a twig.

Sebastian snapped yet another twig, in the exact same way that he had the other sixty or so (he had lost count near fifty), and this twig was broken in a different shape than all of the others.

"So that's what it must've been like," he muttered to himself.

Like what must have been like? a soothing mental voice asked him. He looked up and saw a bipedal fox, what were known as DarkRenamon in the Digital World.

Well, Bruce, he addressed him in like kind, while leaning back against the tree he was seated in front of. I think I understand how the Originals felt when they arrived in the Digital World.

How so, my friend? Bruce inquired.

When the Originals first came to the Digital World, he explained. They were initially shocked by the large scale changes in their environment, from the Chrome-Spine Mountains surrounding them to the Cyberspace Grid above. The first Digimon they met were also a big shock, but they helped people adapt pretty well in time. As the first Digi-humans were born, the things they would most often remark about were always the little things.

He plucked a blue flower growing nearby. It didn't pluck the same way it did in the Digital World. He looked it over, fingered its petals and stem, and smelled it. It wasn't an uncommonly different flower, but it was different in every way from a digital flower.

I've heard those stories too, Bruce said, as he seated himself in front of Sebastian. They talked about how so many things were different in their daily lives, from occasional environmental patching programs to how much more difficult it was to get a splinter stuck in your finger. The thing that stuck out the most to me was how they reacted to when some things that broke into enough pieces would simply dissolve into data and float away, something which doesn't happen in the Real World.

Sebastian nodded. They said that, when the town was transported, everything in the town itself looked the same. That is, until you looked very closely and you'd notice that it looked a little smoother, a little cleaner and less worn than it actually was. Scratches and smudges didn't last nearly as long nor were as hard to clean as they were in the Real World. And-

*Snap*

Breaking off their mental conversation, the two of them immediately jumped up and faced the source of the sound, with Bruce ready to use Shadow Knives and Sebastian had his hands on his swords.

"Whoa there," the source said, holding its hands up.

 _It's her again,_ Sebastian thought, looking at the red-headed teen scientist.

The very moment he had stepped through the Gateway, she was the very first thing he saw. While she was physically not the most attractive nor pretty girl he had seen, all of the little details he saw in her fascinated him. The tiny wrinkles and smudges in her lab coat, the slight small, scattered freckles and dimples in her face.

And then her eyes. This one detail appeared to be much the same in both the Digital and Real Worlds. Looking into her eyes, he saw someone who was both despairingly mourning and hopefully longing for a loved one. He saw someone who had detached themselves from their own emotions – or at least tried to, as they could still be made out in her features.

For Sebastian, it was like looking back to an earlier time – one of pain and loss.

He also noted one other thing. He was one of the less ostentatious of everyone else in the first expeditionary group. He didn`t think he would garner much attention standing to the right of the lovely Sabrina Fulbridge (Bonded to Rosetta the Kudamon), her husband, the brave leader Victor (Bonded to Grant the Agumon), the mischievous Jeffrey Mayweather (Bonded to Jake the Pumpmon) and the free-spirited Beatrice Macron (Bonded with FunBeemon).

The moment he came out, she had been looking right back at him.

"Sooo, can I put my hands down?" the girl inquired.

Realizing that he and Bruce were still at the ready positions, he looked over and nodded, and the two of them relaxed themselves.

She lowered her hands in turn. "You're Bruce and Sebastian, right?" she asked, pointing to the two of them respectively. They nodded. Right after Victor had made a boisterous opening statement, he had went on to a lengthy series of introductions to everyone who had come, complete with listing of abilities and stating of full family names. It had supremely embarrassing to undergo.

"So, you guys exploring out here?" she asked.

"Yes," Bruce answered. "But mainly to enjoy the solitude so that we could contemplate things together."

"Huh," she replied. "Well, I for one have a lot to contemplate about the Digital World."

"Such as?" Sebastian questioned.

She brought her fingers to her temples. "I haven't the foggiest where I should begin. The part where there`s been alien worlds and life sitting right in front of mankind the whole time, the fact you people are frigging near-immortal superheroes, the idea that you've built a brand new civilization brimming with technology and sciences imaginable in only science fiction, or the thought that the world where you came from is a constantly-erupting volcano of shooting wars and interdimensional doomsday conspiracies?! I have no idea how to process any of this shit!"

"How about we start with the loved one you lost to the Digital World?" Sebastian said very bluntly.

The girl jerked up, shock appearing on her face. "How do-"

"Loss and pain are universal," Sebastian explained. "No matter how well hidden, it`s something everyone can recognize as soon as they glimpse it. And considering you haven't said much more than a sentence to anyone since we got here, not even to Sabrina and Rosetta, there's something about me in particular you want to talk about."

That`s more than a little harsh, Sebastian, Bruce pointed out.

Sorry, Sebastian replied. She`s been stoking my curiosity since we arrived and I just want some answers.

"Well," the girl started, unaware of the mental verbal trade. "Whenever I look at you, you, somehow, you remind me of my old boyfriend. I lost him when the Displacement happened. So, Sebastian, would you happen to know what happened to him? His name is Ben. Benjamin Raybell."

He nodded, fully aware of the ramifications of what he was about to reveal. "I do know him, quite well. In fact, he`s among the last of the Original Humans who are still alive."

He saw her eyes brighten.

 _Better get it over with now,_ he thought.

"But I must also tell you that the reason I remind you of him is because he is also my ancestor."

The heartbreak in her eyes was so visible he could have sworn that he saw them crack.

But eyes don`t do that.

Not in the Real or Digital Worlds.

 **A/N: Please leave honest reviews!**


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